Stubbornness is such a universal phenomenon that it is not difficult to find some appropriate term in a receptor language. This may, however, turn out to be highly idiomatic—for example, “they would not listen with their minds,” “they closed their ears,” “they covered over their hearts,” or “they refused to answer back.”
Most translations spell Way with a capital in order to indicate that this is a technical term for the Christian movement. The Good News Translation has expanded this to read the Way of the Lord, so that the person who is listening to the Scripture being read, but not looking on the text himself, will understand the term in this way also.
As has been noted before, a literal translation of the Way of the Lord may not be adequate in some languages. It may be necessary to render this phrase as “the Way which the Lord showed,” “the Way which the Lord prescribed,” or “the Way of life shown by the Lord.”
As the Good News Translation points out in its list of variant readings, some manuscripts add after every day the phrase “from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.” This may well be an accurate description of what did take place. It was the custom in those days for people to carry on their public life until around 11:00 o’clock in the morning, after which they would have their noon meal and then their afternoon siesta. Thus Paul would have worked at his regular job until 11:00 a.m., when the working day was over, and would then have gone to the lecture hall of Tyrannus, where he could talk to people about the Christian Way. Held discussions is the same verb which is rendered “arguing” in the preceding verse. The word rendered lecture hall was a place used for lectures and for other gatherings; “school” gives the English reader a wrong impression.
The lecture hall of Tyrannus may be translated as “the large room where Tyrannus gave lectures” or “the large room where Tyrannus spoke to many people.” This phrase could also mean “the lecture hall owned by Tyrannus.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .